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Monthly Archives: January 2011

It’s a little late, but I’m finally getting to my best and favorite photos of 2010. I did some decent traveling last year, and the best of photos mostly come from that. They include parts of my two trips to Colorado in the spring and the long motorcycle trip to California this summer. Plus there are a few from Monterrey, especially the aquarium, taken in December.

Here was a trip to Rocky Mountain National Park in March about. Snow was everywhere, and three of us, Prateek, Charles, and I, had a good time hiking. We were really tired by the end of the trip and rested well for the upcoming science meeting.

Some others

The next trip to Colorado was by motorcycle in May for a conference about extra planetary sand dunes. We visited Great Sand Dune National Park on a fieldtrip, and it was beautiful. The weather was much more conducive to riding then, and I really had a blast heading through Palo Duro Canyon and north-central New Mexico to southern Colorado.

Palo Duro from above

And another from the park.

Always a favorite part of the year is adding liquid helium to the super-conducting magnetometer. Here you can see cold helium outgassing, as it does it freezes the air around it, and you get air-cycles. Sometimes we even get oxygen drops, but be careful, even though they are liquid they will flash freeze your skin!

The next trip actually went through Colorado, but it took me much farther through Utah, Nevada, California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. Utah has so many amazing places that I could do a best of Utah 2010, but I’ll stick to the few best of the best from that trip.

Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado is a most picturesque place.

It’s almost impossible to choose Utah pictures, but here we go. These are all from Monument Valley or nearby Valley of the Gods.

There are more in the link above

Possibly the most beautiful place on earth is Canyonlands National Park, especially the Needles section. Within a few minutes I took all of these amazing photos and more.

Here are a few from Arches, Natural Bridges, and Capitol Reef National Parks

Those were great, but Bryce Canyon National Park was just gorgeous. And there are several more in the link above.

As it should be, the Grand Canyon is the highlight of any trip, and I was not let down for good quality scenery, even on the way in.

These others are definitely work a click.

More in the link

Of course the stated purpose of that trip was a week long summer school at Jet Propulsion Laboratory. I got to see the upcoming Martian rover while there. It only moved about a foot at the time, but people were happy with that.

Mt. Wilson Observatory tops my list

As does Saguaro National Park

New Mexico has so many highlights I can’t really put them all here, but this from White Sands National Monument takes the cake and may be my personal favorite of the year.

In September I was back in Pasadena, California for another conference, and afterward I took a trip to Santa Barbara for a day. It was pretty. That day happened to be September 11th, and there was a large memorial to that day setup with flags for every person who died that day. Most were Americans, but you can see some other flags in the photos. The one I show is a favorite of Gary Paul, and I like it too.

My last big trip for work in 2010 was to San Francisco for a giant conference. Afterward I stopped by Monterrey for some relaxation and wine tasting. They have a great aquarium there where even an amateur like me can take fantastic photos. Here are just a few of the best.

My favorite from the aquarium turned out to be this one, and that is surprising since it was just a single shot taken in passing. This leads me to believe that one should always have his camera ready.

Actually before I even got to San Francisco I stayed with family in Berkeley. On the first morning at their house I awoke to this view – one that has won me many points with my photographer girlfriend.

So I put a lot more in here than was required, but there are just too many to choose from that were fun to take and look at. I hope you enjoyed, and if you want to see the rest just click here.

Here I am, 30 years old. Well, 30 minus an hour. It’s one of those things that we all look to our future and then reflect back on. This is a good time in my life. For the first time I know who I am and have a path to reach the things I want.

I’m very happy with things and how they’re going. There isn’t much to say about this, and I have plenty of other things to write about, especially the recent motorcycle trip/ birthday present to Mexico, so this post is just a placeholder until I can reflect on it more. Here I am 30 years old.